The East Alabama Early Care and Education Workforce Alliance is a regional collaboration convened by Southern Union State Community College to strengthen the early care and education system serving Auburn, Opelika, and Lee County.
Recognizing that no single organization could solve the challenges facing early care and education alone, Southern Union convened business leaders, elected officials, educators, child care providers, nonprofit organizations, workforce development partners, and state agencies around a shared goal:
Building a stronger workforce by strengthening the systems that support Alabama's youngest children and the families who raise them.
Our work recognizes two important realities:
- Healthy brain development during the first four years of life provides the foundation for lifelong learning, health, and productivity.
- Access to reliable early care and education is an essential workforce infrastructure that enables parents to participate fully in Alabama's economy.
Rather than focusing on a single program or policy, the Alliance demonstrates how local leadership, strategic partnerships, and existing resources can be aligned to strengthen early care and education and the workforce it supports. Through this work, Southern Union State Community College is demonstrating the unique role community colleges can play as conveners, bringing together education, business, government, and community partners to address complex workforce challenges.
Why This Matters
East Alabama continues to experience rapid economic growth. As employers expand, access to reliable, high-quality early care and education has emerged as both a workforce challenge and an economic development opportunity.
Communities across Alabama continue to experience shortages of affordable, high-quality early care and education. The impact extends well beyond families.
Employers struggle to recruit and retain workers. Child care providers face workforce shortages and financial challenges. Communities lose economic capacity when parents cannot fully participate in the labor force.
At the same time, Alabama has developed valuable supports for providers and families. Our work has shown that one of the greatest opportunities is not simply creating new programs; it is better connecting and leveraging the resources that already exist.
A Community-Led Model
Rather than beginning with predetermined solutions, the Alliance has spent the past year listening.
Through a regional Landscape Analysis and a series of Community Conversations, stakeholders from business, education, government, philanthropy, and early childhood education are identifying both the strengths of our current system and the opportunities to strengthen it.
Using Systems Thinking principles, the Alliance is developing practical, community-driven strategies that can be implemented locally while informing broader conversations across Alabama.
Our goal is to create a model that can be adapted by other communities seeking to strengthen both their early childhood systems and their workforce.
The Role of Southern Union State Community College
Southern Union serves as the convener of the Alliance because community colleges are uniquely positioned to bring together education, workforce development, business, and community partners.
Beyond preparing the early childhood workforce, community colleges can serve as trusted conveners that help communities align existing resources, strengthen partnerships, and create sustainable local solutions.
This work demonstrates how community colleges can play a leadership role in addressing one of Alabama's most pressing workforce challenges.
Early Results
- The East Alabama Early Care and Education Workforce Alliance has already translated collaboration into action.
- Convened regional leaders representing business, education, economic development, government, philanthropy, and early care and education to identify shared priorities for strengthening the early childhood workforce.
- Completed a regional Landscape Analysis and facilitated Community Conversations to inform community-driven strategies and collective action.
- Partnered with the Alabama Department of Human Resources, the Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education, and the Alabama Community College System Innovation Center to develop a no-cost professional learning course that will help child care providers better understand and participate in Alabama's Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS). By strengthening provider participation in existing quality improvement initiatives, the Alliance is helping connect local programs with resources that already exist, leveraging current state investments without increasing the tax burden on Alabama families.
- Selected to present the Alliance's collaborative approach at the 2026 National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) Annual Conference, highlighting East Alabama's work as a promising model for strengthening the early childhood workforce through community partnerships.
East Alabama Early Care and Education Summit
On September 17, 2026, the East Alabama Early Care and Education Workforce Alliance will host the East Alabama Early Care and Education Summit, bringing together business leaders, elected officials, educators, child care providers, economic development professionals, and community partners to share the findings of our regional Landscape Analysis and Community Conversations and to identify opportunities for collective action.
The Summit will highlight how a community college can serve as the catalyst for regional collaboration, connecting education, business, government, and community partners to strengthen the early childhood workforce and support Alabama families. We believe the work taking place in East Alabama has the potential to serve as a model for communities across our state, and we would be honored to share our progress with Senator Britt and discuss how community-led partnerships can strengthen families, employers, and local economies throughout Alabama.
Sandra Little
Child Development Program Director
Southern Union State Community College
Convener, East Alabama Early Care and Education Workforce Alliance
Follow us on social media:
